By Joy Namunoga
KAMPALA – Uganda has several contenders in her political arena including the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) at the top with several opposition parties like the FDC, NUP, DP, ANT etc. Just like in any other multi-party democracy, political parties’ roles include demanding public accountability and strengthening citizens’ capacity to hold the government to account for performance, behavior, and resource utilization. Political parties are also involved in participatory checks and balances in the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and public funds, as well as facilitating political and social debate amongst citizens, and between citizens and politicians.
However, to bring the node closer to home, political parties in Uganda are increasingly becoming ineffective, corrupt, self-indulgent, too constrained by their opponents, and out of touch to earn the respect and support of the public. Notably, a number of Uganda’s political parties are still scrambling for visibility and suffer from the “see me” syndrome with little regard to demanding accountability from the ruling party. The players in Uganda’s political space now operate on the lines of either “having it” or “frustrating it”, consequently making political parties’ sheer organizations for personal survival rather than serving the interests of the people.
To contextualize the above submission, the National Resistance Movement party welcomed a referendum that restored multiparty politics in 2005, which was a good move to ensure checks and balances. Immediately some players within the NRM fell out, forming or joining other political parties. Since then, there has been a lot of political bribery, winning opponents with “juicy political roles,” suffocating opponents under house arrest and imprisonment following alleged attempts to demand accountability.
With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of these political parties took to the usual bickering and finding fault with the way the NRM party managed the situation as opposed to rising up to the occasion with better alternatives to the action centers. Indeed, many political parties revolutionized their social media channels to reach Ugandans. One would however wonder if these political parties were ready to address Ugandans and offer solutions through the internet or are still scrambling for visibility and relevance within Uganda’s political spectrum.
Uganda is currently undergoing several transparency and accountability violations as highlighted in the media, the 2021 Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) – which report card definitely deserves to be in a secret hiding spot.
Notably, a number of torture reports by the Uganda Human Rights Commission 2017- 2018 have not been addressed, abuse of public office incidences are high, commodity prices are shooting through the roof, exacerbated by continuous evidence of corruption by the Auditor General’s 2020-2021 report. All these have not been given enough attention and valid concerns are swept under the carpet by the parties. Fuel prices are literally going up almost every week and we have hardly heard any voice from those who posture to represent the voiceless!!. The silence of our political parties at the time when an ordinary citizen needs support to demand critical answers is loud and clear.
This political theater is so painful to watch as the citizens who entrusted some of the leaders with power are (leaders) in turn investing time and resources in making themselves a national embarrassment through uttering constant innuendos and double-entendres against one another.
Ugandans are now conceiving political parties as a chairman’s bag in a functional meeting – as it is used to collect mobilizational funds for a given period and when the goal is reached, they call it a day. Contrary, public service delivery has to go on, but who will fill the political parties monitoring role as they have limited acceptance of difference of opinion, tolerance of diversity, and dissent which are some of the most important components in any given democratic process.
To uproot the entrenched political parties’ inefficiencies, fenced by the absence of credible accountability, misuse of public resources, and limited transparency, there is a need for reforms that make politics in Uganda a service rather than a window of “earning quick wealth”. The fees payable by political parties before registering and joining politics should either be scraped off or reduced. Importantly, intensify political activism and sensitization to facilitate citizens’ awareness of their constitutional mandate to even recall leaders who don’t account to them.
To fix the problem, Uganda’s political parties should strategize towards winning back the citizens’ trust, which has gradually been eroded by similarities with the ruling party, especially when it comes to self-serving interests, and failing to make the necessary noise on issues that affect the ordinary person. This can be done by providing constructive and critical opposition by presenting themselves as the alternative government voters may wish to choose — thus pressuring the incumbents to be more responsive to the public’s interests.
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Joy Namunoga, is a Governance and Social accountability Practitioner.
